NaVorro Bowman not concerned about effect of Kelly’s offense on defense

Posted by Josh Alper on January 31, 2016, 11:22 AM EDT

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Chip Kelly’s three years as the Eagles head coach saw the team’s defense on the field for more plays than any other team twice and they finished second in the other season, which has led to complaints from some players about the impact that his uptempo offense has on the other side of the ball when they go three and out quickly.

Kelly is with the 49ers now, but the team’s defensive leader isn’t worried about the potential for an increased workload in 2016. Linebacker NaVorro Bowman says there’s a simple solution for the defense when the offense is on and off the field in a hurry.

“Nah, I think people are blowing it out of proportion,” Bowman said, via NFL.com. “I think any defense you play in, if your offense is getting off the field quicker than you gotta get off the field quicker. You gotta hold yourself to that standard.”

The 49ers defense had an issue getting off the field quickly in 2015. The average drive by an opposing offense was three minutes, which ranked 32nd in the league, and they played the sixth-most plays in the league. Whatever the pace of the offense, an upgrade in talent and execution on defense is going to be necessary for the 49ers to get back on track.

14 responses to “NaVorro Bowman not concerned about effect of Kelly’s offense on defense”

Bowman is a great player. He’s played for good coaches and he’s played for bad coaches. It sounds to me like he welcomes the opportunity to play for a good coach again. Plus he loves to play football, so the possibility for him to stay on the field a little longer is music to his ears. All great players feel that way. It’s only the really bad players that complain about actually having to get out on the field and play.

dude’s saying the right things but this eagles fan knows better. it’s not about what happens to your defense in the fourth quarter it’s about what happens to your defense in december (at which point they’ve played the equivalent of an extra game or two).

This dude is oblivious to the tidal wave that’s about to hit him, the defense and the whole organisation. Just because he is an accomplished-pro football player, it doesn’t mean he is a rocket scientist.

Or, maybe he does know and he is saying all the right things now, trying to be a ‘good company man’.

Either way, he is going to be singing a whole different tune in a year or two.

We’ll see if Bowman even has to worry as much about it. We’ll also see if Chip Kelly actually deserved a second chance or not. The things good coaches do is the ability to adapt, the ability to rest your players enough to where you get the same effort in the first game as you get in the last game, the ability to change style of play based on the talent you have and the ability to see your own faults. Coach Pop in the NBA has been a master at this stuff and his Spurs are in it every single year.

We’ve seen the flaws in Kelly’s system. In Philly it was his way or the highway. He ran his defenses into the ground. He refused to even slightly change his style of play despite the fact that the key free agents he targeted, and the players he traded for, didn’t fit his style of play. Bradford is a zero threat to keep the ball himself because of his glass bones, Murray isn’t a fast side to side type runner and Alonso is injury prone and wasn’t tough enough to be on a defense that was always on the field (despite having a decent rookie season with the Bills.)

We’ll see what he’s learned in Philly. Now he has a QB that’s more suited for his style of offense but I don’t think their defense is nearly as good as the Eagles were/are. Bowman is an incredible game changer but even he’ll have problems if he’s on the field all the time. Only time will tell how Kelly will do but if I was a betting man I’d be willing to bet he learned nothing from his failures in Philly. The 49ers scooped him up so fast I don’t think he had time to really sit back and look at all his errors with Philly.

All this talk about Kelly’s system causing the defense to play an extra 3 games…. is nonsense in this case.

The Niners had just about the same time of possession as the Eagles in 2015. So, for Bowman, there is no difference between what he just endured in 2015 and the worst-case scenario 2016. And the up-side is that he might be playing defense with a lead on the scoreboard for the first time in a long while.